Green, Sharon - Mind Guest.htm

by Mind Guest

  considered that the only decent way to appear in public, but I couldn't

  help wishing there was some way to be indecent yet stay in character.

  The blazing fire was making me sweat, and outdoors would hardly be

  better. The nights grew cool around there, but the days were pleasantly

  warm.

  After my hair had been combed to Bellna's satisfaction, I led the way

  out of the room. It was useful being able to leave some of the small

  details to the Bellna presence, but I had to be careful not to do it

  too often. Something like that could get to be a habit, and habits like

  that I didn't need. The girls followed after me down the stairs, trying

  not to step on my skirts in their hurry, even more upset that I was

  still taking my time. At the bottom of the stairs the redhead, who was

  carrying my cape, squeezed past me and got to the door to the outer

  room first, then held it open. I knew she was telling the men I'd

  finally gotten there, and when I reached the doorway I found two sets

  of eyes on me.

  Grigon stood in the same conservative dark trousers and white shirt he

  had worn the day before, stood shouldered and narrow-faced, his faint

  air of disapproval covered by the small bow he performed. As far as

  being the center of attention, though, he could have been jumping up

  and down and waving his arms and he still wouldn't have made it. The

  second man dominated the room completely, despite the fact that he was

  doing nothing but standing there. He was taller and broader than

  Grigon, brown-haired and brown-eyed, square-faced and almost handsome

  in his ugliness. His pants and knee-length boots were black, but his

  shirt was a bright, blazing red, telling everyone who looked at him

  that he was a mercenary. The long neck-scarf he wore was a light blue,

  showing that he was employed by Prince Havro, whose main color was

  light blue. My information told me his neck scarf was black when he was

  unemployed, and also that the length of it ~ claimed him captain of his

  group. His left hand rested on the hilt of a plain, workmanlike sword, which was sheathed in a well-worn brown leather scabbard belted around

  his waist; his eyes, piercingly direct and without any trace of

  backwardness, rested only on me. Bellna unfluttered in my mind at the

  impact of those eyes, impressed despite herself, sharing the sense of

  excitement that crackled among the four girls behind me like static

  electricity. Fallan was the sort of man whose attention most females

  tried to attract; it seemed only fair to let him know where he stood

  with me.

  "I hope, Lieutenant, that you and your men are prepared to depart," I

  told his stare as I moved briskly into the center of the room. "The

  journey before us is lengthy, and there is little sense in standing

  about here."

  "In standing about here," he echoed in a deep voice, watching without

  expression as I approached him. "You are concerned as to whether or not

  we are prepared to depart?"

  "My Princess, allow me to present the leader of your escort," Grigon

  hastily interposed as Fallan began drawing himself up to the explosion

  point. "This is Captain Fallan, leader of twenty, engaged by your

  father the Prince to protect you from his enemies at all costs. Where

  your safety is concerned, the Captain has been authorized to speak with

  your father's voice. I feel quite sure, Captain, that my Princess will

  afford you full cooperation."

  "I will be pleased to give the - captain, did you say, Grigon? - the

  Captain's planned itinerary my personal attention," I answered as I

  adjusted the sleeves and skirt of my dress, not looking directly at

  either of the men. "It will undoubtedly be acceptable with only the

  most minor corrections."

  Grigon looked as if he wanted to close his eyes in pain, and the four

  girls behind me gasped in shock; Fallan, surprisingly, showed amusement

  rather than anger

  "My - itinerary - has already received the approval of your father,

  Princess," he said with the smallest bow it's possible for the human

  body to perform. "It is therefore unnecessary for you to concern

  yourself with the matter, save in compliance. As sufficient time has

  already been wasted in awaiting your appearance, you may now take

  yourself to the coach which stands without. My men and I seek to

  complete our commission before we have attained too great an age to

  attempt others after it."

  "How dare you!" I gasped, using only a small part of Bellna's shocked

  indignation at the way he'd spoken to me. "Perhaps it has escaped your

  notice that you address someone other than a peasant, Captain! I assure

  you my father will hear of your impertinence!"

  "Your father has already heard of my impertinence," Fallan grinned,

  moving a step closer to me. "It is undoubtedly the reason I was given

  this commission. You may inform his Highness that all proceeds apace,

  Lord Grigon."

  "It will be my pleasure to do so, Captain," Grigon agreed with the

  ghost of a smile on his narrow face. "Now, if I may have a moment alone

  with the Princess before your departure.

  "You may not," Fallan said, finality in his voice as his big hand

  wrapped around my arm. "The Princess has expended more moments than her

  share; yours must unfortunately replace one of them. This moment is the

  one we depart."

  Grigon's mouth opened in protest, his faint amusement gone, but he

  wasn't given a chance to get any words out. Fallan was already hustling

  me toward the door, his pace and effort easy enough to pretend to be

  assistance, his grip solid enough to really give me no choice. Bellna was having a screaming fit in my head, furious over the way Fallan was

  treating me, but I glanced back at Grigon feeling disturbed. My fellow

  agent had clearly wanted to tell me something, and was just as clearly

  not going to get the chance. I sputtered indignantly at Fallan just to

  stay in character, but inwardly I was cursing at him in a way that

  probably would have shocked him if I'd done it aloud. Missing inside

  information was hazardous to the health in my line of work, and I was

  missing it because of Fallan.

  Apparently the information Grigon had wasn't important enough to cause

  him to make a fuss over Fallan's decision. I heard him trailing along

  behind with the four girls as I was taken through the door into the

  early dawn. At the foot of the porch steps was a large, ornate

  carriage, light blue trimmed with gold, Prince Havro's sigil on the

  door facing us, six brown vair harnessed to the front of it. Vair were

  tall, doe-eyed draft animals, four-legged and soft-coated, maned and

  tailed and usually even-tempered. Fallan's twenty were also mounted on

  vair, though not at the time we left the lodge. Right then they were

  standing around looking bored, but when they saw us they immediately

  perked up.

  "Your four wenches must accompany you in the coach," Fallan told me as

  I hastily lifted my skirts to keep from tripping down the steps. "I

  lack sufficient vair to mount them among my men, and would not wish the

  distracti
on even had I the vair. They will ride with you."

  "They are not mine, therefore may they be left behind!" I snapped,

  annoyed at the way he was treating me, but even more frustrated by his

  suggestion. When Clero's men caught up with that coach, I wanted to be

  the only one in it. If attackers become confused about who the target

  is, they tend to wipe out everyone in sight just to be on the safe

  side.

  "They will not be left behind," he answered, more interested in

  reaching for the handle of the coach door than in arguing with me. "It

  is necessary that they accompany you, and they shall do so. Allow me to

  assist you into the coach."

  His hand on my arm forced me up the narrow steps and into the coach,

  letting me go only when I made the obvious choice between standing up

  all bent over and sitting down on the right-hand seat. The seething

  Bellna was doing bubbled through my mind and body, involving me more

  than a little. Fallan was making an occasional, casual attempt to treat

  me with the respect a princess was supposed to be given, but only if

  the attempt didn't put him out any. I pulled angrily at my skirt to

  straighten it under me, fighting off the urge to tell Fallan exactly

  what I thought of him-in terms guaranteed to make him come after me. A

  boot in the face would teach him to watch his mouth when he spoke to

  me, not to mention how personally pleasant I would find-I shook my head

  hard, making sure that line of thought was cut off cold. Bellna's

  frothing was beginning to affect my annoyance, and I couldn't let that

  happen. I needed Fallen to help me spring Clero's trap, and even if I

  didn't, beating up on him would be somewhat out of character. I could

  sit there and scowl at the back of his head, but that was all I had

  better do.

  At Fallan's gesture the four girls hurried to the coach, then climbed

  inside wearing harried expressions. They weren't about to disobey

  Fallan and not enter the coach, but my very obvious displeasure was

  making them uneasy. The first three to scramble inside made sure to

  take the opposite seat, as far from me as possible, but that left the

  fourth one, the redhead, out in the cold or at least out of a seat.

  There just wasn't any more room on the other side, and I was sitting in the middle of my seat. Another man had come up to join Fallan at the

  coach door, this one wearing a light blue neck scarf of his

  lieutenant's length, and when the redhead hesitated, half in and half

  out of the coach, he decided to take advantage of the situation.

  "Should there be no room for this one, Captain, I will gladly take her

  with me," he said with a grin, then slid his hand up under her cheap

  print skirt. "Her presence will pass the time quite pleasantly."

  The girl gasped and reddened when the mercenary's hand reached its

  target, but she still had nowhere to go. Her left arm clutched my cape

  to her body as both mercenaries laughed, and then her widened eyes

  closed in misery. She couldn't climb in and she couldn't climb out, and

  Bellna was smugly pleased to see her like that. What happened to

  peasants was of no concern to a princess, the two men were enjoying the

  girl's discomfort, and even the other three peasant girls were

  snickering to themselves. No one felt the least amount of pity for the

  victim caught in the middle, but I've never been bright about things

  like that. I reached out and took the girl's right arm, hauled her past

  me to the seat to my right, then turned my head toward Fallan.

  "I had thought grown men would be more difficult to divert from their

  duty," I observed in Bellna's sleekest, nastiest tone. "Apparently, my

  father's enemies will need do no more than dangle some pleasant wench

  before you, and you will be theirs. I now see the necessity for the

  presence of these peasants: to allow you to retain memory of your

  commission."

  The second man was as pretty-handsome as Fallan was ugly, and he hadn't

  liked the way I'd taken his toy away. My speech turned his frown into a

  scowl, but before he could vocalize his displeasure, Fallan's big hand

  was on his shoulder.

  "It is long past time to depart, Ralnor," Fallan said in a strangely

  even tone, his eyes unmoving from my face.

  "Have the men mount up." he waited for Ralnor to move away with a curt

  nod, then closed the coach door with a slam. "As for you, Missy," he

  continued in a lower tone, looking up at me through the window,

  "Princess or no, injured sensibilities or no, you had best learn to

  curb your tongue. Should I find it necessary to remonstrate with you

  for impertinence as your father has given me leave to do, you will find

  the occasion less than pleasant."

  With that he turned and walked behind the coach, undoubtedly to get his

  vair, leaving me to cope with the painful resonance of Bellna's shock.

  My uninvited guest was finding it impossible to believe that her father

  would have given Fallan permission to keep her in line, and was

  scandalized at the mere suggestion that he had. For my own part I was

  fairly certain Fallan was exaggerating if not lying outright, a

  possibility supported by the uncertain look on Grigon's face. The

  Absari agent was still standing on the lodge porch, watching the

  goings-on but not joining them; when he saw me looking at him his

  expression turned determined and he started down the steps, but he was

  too late. Fallan shouted an order, another voice echoed it, and the

  coach lurched briskly away from the lodge.

  "I cannot fathom the reason you have placed yourself in jeopardy for

  me," a faint voice said from my right. "You are a Princess and I am no

  one."

  I turned my head to see the red-haired girl, backed as far away from me

  on the seat as she could get, still clutching my cape, vast confusion

  in her big blue eyes. At the same time I became aware of the fact that

  the other three girls were also staring at me, all of them practically

  shouting that I'd stepped out of character. They weren't far wrong, but I didn't want them to go on believing it.

  "I, placed in jeopardy?" I asked with brows raised high, pulling my

  skirt away from the redhead as though she might contaminate it. "You

  speak foolishly, girl, for you know not what you say. Think you that

  lout toyed with you? As you say, you are less than nothing and I am a

  princess. To put hands upon the servant of a princess is to offer

  insult to the princess herself, and that I shall not allow. That fool

  of a captain is now aware of it."

  "And yet he promised you punishment," the girl whispered, still hugging

  my cape. "You cannot know what punishment is at the hands of one such

  as he."

  "Nor shall I know," I smirked, waving the point away with one hand. "He

  attempts to frighten me with child's tales which I shall not, of

  course, believe. Have no fear, girl. You stand beneath my protection."

  I turned my attention to the forest we rode through, pretending I

  didn't see the looks exchanged among the three girls opposite me. They

  were now probably considering me no more than a pompous brat, which was

  jus
t the way I wanted it. When the attack came, their first thought

  would be to put as much distance between me and them as possible -

  which just might keep them alive.

  It didn't take long before our party reached a wide road through the

  woods, and shortly thereafter the real boredom began. Although the day

  was beginning to be pretty, there's just so much you can get out of

  forests and fields and more forests. My mercenary escort rode all

  around the coach, their neck scarves streaming out behind them, their

  eyes constantly in motion in all directions. The four girls in the

  coach untied their shawls from around their waists and retied them

  around their shoulders against the early morning chill, then began

  discussing in low tones the various mercenaries they could see from the

  coach, possibly to take their minds off how cold they still were. In

  all the layers of clothes I'd been stuffed into, cold was the least of

  my worries; once the sun came up for real, I'd be sweating like a metal

  bucket filled with ice. I moved in discomfort, silently cursing the way

  my layered underwear made it feel as if I were sitting on something

  lumpy. Only chains could have tied me tighter than those clothes, and I

  didn't like the feeling. I stared out of the window on my left

  morosely, trying to block out the giggling of the peasant girls, and

  suddenly a beautiful red bird flashed out of the trees, pacing us with

  lazy wing-beats for a moment before turning away back to the forest. I

  watched the bird until it disappeared, delighting in its beauty and

  freedom, not realizing that I was being watched just as closely until I

  noticed Fallan. The mercenary captain rode his vair not five feet from

  the coach, and when he saw my eyes on him he urged his mount closer.

  "I had not known you had a smile of such beauty, Princess," he said,

  looking at me in a way that made Bellna shiver in my mind. "A pity it

  is so often displaced by a pout."

  He grinned then and sent his vair on ahead and out of sight, leaving

  behind a deep silence in the coach. All four of the girls were staring

  at me wide-eyed, their faces reflecting the thrilled excitement Bellna

  was sending racing through my bloodstream. Fallan had actually shown a

  faint interest in me, and Bellna was almost ready to consider it a

  promise of undying love. All of the girls, Bellna included, were